"Scared?" he asked softly

The words circled on her tongue before she swallowed them back. What she said instead was, "Anything's fine."

Zuo Tingyue said nothing. The light turned green, the car swung around, and he slammed on the accelerator.

Xun Yuan knew how to read the room. Since Zuo Tingyue wasn't speaking, she stayed silent too.

She didn't know why Zuo Tingyue was unhappy. Had he been scolded at the family estate? Three days had passed since the incident, and not a trace of it could be found online anymore.

Xun Yuan couldn't figure it out, so she simply stopped thinking about it.

Buildings raced backward through her field of vision, and soon the view opened up.

The car stopped at the Bund. The fine, lingering rain had never stopped.

Zuo Tingyue stayed in the car and lowered his window halfway, a cigarette between his fingers. His flint-wheel lighter clicked, and he lit the cigarette. Smoke slowly spread.

Xun Yuan lowered her window too. The rain wasn't heavy. Tiny droplets landed on the windshield, only to be quickly swept away by the wipers.

"Did they blame you at the family estate?"

Xun Yuan heard herself ask, her voice utterly flat.

Zuo Tingyue exhaled a mouthful of smoke. His voice was low, roughened by the smoke, his tone faintly teasing.

"Worried?"

He seemed to have nothing to fear, yet also seemed utterly unconcerned, almost flirtatious.

Xun Yuan fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at him. The car lights were on, a little light coming through the glass, dimly. She could only make out his smoke-shrouded eyes and brows, his profile blurred and handsome.

She suddenly gave a soft laugh. When she spoke again, a smile colored her voice.

"Do you need me to be?"

Zuo Tingyue didn't answer that. He smoked slowly; his silence was his best answer.

All this talk of needing or not needing carried too much personal feeling.

Xun Yuan briefly closed her eyes, her voice gentle and mild. "I am worried."

Once she had said it, it wasn't so difficult anymore. Whether he needed it or not, whatever she had, whatever she could give, whatever she wanted to give-she could give it all.

Her cool voice softened and quieted, its final note rising, deliberately drawn out. In the night, she sounded both sweet and soft.

"I'm worried about you~"

That was all. Her heart had softened toward him, and she wanted to coax him. She couldn't bear to see it.

Zuo Tingyue chuckled and lifted her in front of him, stubbing out his cigarette with one hand while the other kneaded the soft flesh of her earlobe.

The light and shadows were dim, his handsome face indistinct. A faint smile touched his eyes, and his voice came out hoarse from the smoke.

"Scared?" he asked softly.

Xun Yuan's fingers, unsure where to settle, paused before coming to rest on his brow bone. His eyes were deep-set, his brows like swords and his eyes like stars. Her fingertips were soft as they slowly stroked his eyelids.

She understood what he was asking. Neither of them had ever mentioned the future; they shared a tacit understanding. Really, he left her not knowing what he was thinking.

Would coldhearted, unfeeling Zuo Tingyue worry?

How could Xun Yuan dare believe that? All she wanted was to give it everything she had while she liked him.

"No."

She spoke softly, paused briefly, then asked lightly, "Will you protect me?"

Zuo Tingyue's indifferent expression shifted, a faint smile coloring his face.

"Do you want me to?"

Just look.

There he went again.

Never giving a definite answer, always something that sounded like one but wasn't.

An outright scumbag.

Thinking about it carefully, his answer achieved the same effect as hers earlier. It also seemed as though he had won a round back, neither of them willing to concede first.

Xun Yuan paused, then decided to play it straight. Her voice was very soft, carrying a different sort of charm in Harbor City's cool, rainy night.

"Yes, I do."

She looked into his eyes. Those eyes of his were always so detached, his smile never reaching their depths. The smile was only three parts deep, yet somehow lethally captivating.

That "Yes, I do" was probably the first time Xun Yuan had asked anything of Zuo Tingyue, plainly stating what she wanted.

A little amusement stirred in Zuo Tingyue's eyes. His hand slipped behind her neck, supporting her head and tilting it up slightly as he kissed and bit her lips. His movements were outrageously forceful, as though he wanted to swallow her whole.

"Ah~"

A tiny cry of pain escaped Xun Yuan's red lips. She consciously lowered her cool voice, but still couldn't hold back the cry.

He was biting her red lips.

Zuo Tingyue released her and watched a hazy mist rise in her eyes. She looked pitiful, inviting tenderness and indulgence, that bewitching allure lingering around her eyes and brows, endlessly enchanting.

"All right, then."

The words left his thin lips carelessly, low and hoarse with desire.

Xun Yuan was dizzy from his kisses. When she heard those words, her mind went blank for a moment.

"Pitter-patter-pitter-patter-"

Outside the window, the light rain pattered, and the wipers worked without pause. Xun Yuan sat in his arms, her features a painting-and the most captivating painting at that.

Suddenly feeling a faint ache, she knitted her delicate brows, looked seriously at the man before her, and said softly:

"No biting."

"It really hurts."

The woman's cool voice quieted, taking on a trace of softness and seductive charm.

Zuo Tingyue brushed his fingers lightly over her red lips. So soft. Only someone who had tried them would know just how soft she was.

The warmth beneath his touch was damp and hot, their vivid color brighter than cinnabar. He had given her that.

It truly satisfied that base streak in a man-especially the possessiveness of someone used to being above others.

He chuckled, a trace of desire escaping into his eyes. His voice was husky. "You're too tempting."

Xun Yuan's face grew a little hot, rouge-red color staining her fair cheeks. It was embarrassment.

"That still doesn't mean you can bite."

She argued her case.

Xun Yuan hadn't pinned up her hair today. It hung loose behind her, simple and unadorned, yet it only made her beauty more stunning. The plainer she was, the prettier she looked.

No, light makeup or heavy adornment, both suited her.

Zuo Tingyue stroked her smooth, long hair, a faint tenderness in his movements. Her hair was soft, infused with the pleasant, delicate fragrance of her body. She was fragrant and soft all over.

"I'll be gentler."

Zuo Tingyue finally let those words emerge from deep in his throat. All that could be said was that she was too bewitching.

Xun Yuan looked at him, seemingly dissatisfied, her gaze fixed on him. Then she tipped her head up-

And captured his lips.

Biting him back.

In the dim light, the woman's slender, snow-white arms looped around the man's neck. She pressed gently with her pearly teeth, increasing the force little by little.

It tickled.

That tickling sensation spread from his lips to other places, finally turning entirely into the impulse of desire.

With an invasive sense of pressure, Zuo Tingyue's well-defined fingers thrust into the hair at the back of Xun Yuan's head. At some point, his cuff button had come undone, and his sleeve had slipped to his elbow. Veins bulged on his exposed forearm, steeped in masculine lust.

Hormones spread rapidly until they swept through the entire car. An aggressive presence surged unrestrained toward the lovely woman before him, heartbeats silently boiling and leaping, clamoring with the fierceness of emotion.

Oil over a raging fire, fresh flowers laid upon brocade-there was an urgent need for a thorough, unrestrained release.

Late night, light rain, the Bund, a luxury car, a man and woman of the mortal world, the temperature rising.